


The Irregularity

by Enchanting_Codswallop



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Brotherly Love, Fluff, Older Man/Younger Man, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Character Death, Past Relationship(s), W. D. Gaster is not related to Skelebros
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-23 13:32:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8329738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enchanting_Codswallop/pseuds/Enchanting_Codswallop
Summary: Sans did his best to protect his home and his brother. He'd seen everything, done everything, and was immune to surprises. However, this time, something was different. This time, something wasn't quite right.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Silver_Centurion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silver_Centurion/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I do not own _Undertale_ or associated characters.
> 
> I plan on making a happy story, believe it or not. It doesn't seem that way, but it will.
> 
> Happy Birthday, hon! :)

It was late in Hotland.

A smaller monster in a bright blue jacket stood facing toward a sea of darkness that cut abruptly to a pool of bubbling magma. The eerie orange and red glow from the liquid rock below barely reached the monster where he was standing, only managing to cast him further in shadow. Heat waves ruffled the fur of his hood, causing the small hairs to rustle against his skeletal face. He shifted slightly, rolling his shoulders as he came back to himself. His eye sockets had previously been darkened, but his pin-pricks of light came back, focused on the Core before him.

It was hot and loud, the whirring and churning, knocks, clicks, and clangs from the gigantic machine reverberating around the cavernous space. No other monsters were even close to the area, but that wasn’t because they were sleeping. Very few liked to come close to this place, much less look at the Core. The room and everything around it gave off an absurdly creepy vibe. There were only a select few monsters that could stand staying in the area for more than an hour. It was as if the place was telling one to leave, to get out, and to never return. Phones had a tough time working around the area too, making the folks who come for a visit even more uneasy.

Only the lone monster now staring into the magma knew why this was. He was the one who remembered. He remembered the resets, the beginnings, the ends, the outcomes, the fights…However, it had been a very long time since anything had been reset. His brother Papyrus was alive and so was everyone else, which was all that really mattered to the skeleton monster, and it didn’t matter to him how he kept it that way.

Sans huffed through his teeth, grinning at the hulking structure. He was happy, he really was, but there was a part of him he’d always miss. A someone, more specifically.

He let the face he’d been trying not to think about come to him in his mind’s eye as he slowly looked up and stared at the bright reflection of the magma against the Core’s superheated metal.

The image made his grin grow, falter, and then grow again. It was still funny to him how no one in town seemed to realize or care that they didn’t know what the previous royal scientist looked like with certain clarity. He had been almost completely forgotten. Almost. After all, the monsters still knew his name. W.D. Gaster. Sans was the only one that remembered him in his entirety.

Everyone thought doctor Gaster died by falling into his machine, which was true, but it wasn’t the whole truth.

The truth was, that Gaster didn’t fall into the machine alone.

Sans didn’t want to think about that though, and instead took a deep breath, his eyes going dark as he teleported home. A certain younger brother of his should have been about to wake up.

***

Morning came lazily in Snowdin, so lazily in fact that only early risers got up to greet it.

One such skeleton was sleeping comfily, hidden under a bulk of warm covers, and dreaming of driving at unimaginable speeds in his bright red bed-car. His alarm was going to go off in twenty minutes.

Suddenly, Papryus 's door flew open, knocking hard against the wall and causing him to shoot out of bed, eye sockets unfocused, and feet caught in his sheets. He tumbled over and shot up, grabbing his pillow heroically in preparation for anything—only to see his brother standing in the doorway, face shadowed from the hall light.

"Sans! What's going on!? Is something wrong? What—" Papryus noted the time, seeing that he had to wake up in only nineteen minutes. Sans was never up this early! Something must be horribly wrong!

"it's mr. mumbles...something's happened to him." Sans said simply, turning on his heel and disappearing down the hallway.

Papyrus gasped. "Mr. Mumbles? Oh, no!” He ran downstairs as fast as his candy cane pajama clad legs could take him, only stopping when he saw Sans standing in front of a table. The taller brother clambered over, fearful, eye sockets wide, as he slapped his hands on San’s shoulders and peered over him.

The sight that met him made him gasp once again in shock.

There, on the little plate, sat Mr. Mumbles covered in sprinkles. However, right next to Mr. Mumbles was a little pebble surrounded by sprinkles. He stared hard at it, scrunching up his bony face and blinking.

"What..."

"turns out mr. mumbles is a mrs. mumbles, bro."

Papryus clapped his gloved hands to his face and cried, "By the stars, it's a miracle, Sans!! Wowie! A pebble! When! How? It doesn’t matter! Fear not young pebble, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, will keep you safe…and fed! Welcome to the world!"

Sans watched his now cooing brother with a genuine grin as the younger began sprinkling the pebble with "food" and looking like he was about to burst from excitement.

"pap."

The youngest brother was too busy squatting at eye-level with the new rock family to hear him.

"pap."

"Hmm? Yes, brother?"

"Wanna go to Grillby's to celebrate? We ran out of food, again.”

"I cannot! I have post duty today! And then training with Undyne! And what happened to the spaghetti I made yesterday? And! This one still doesn't have a name! I've never named an infant before...it'll be stuck with its name its whole life! Forever!" Papyrus was nearly squawking with joy as he gently picked up the house’s newest addition.

Sans smirked, making a hand gesture. "what about mumbles junior? And ‘sides, I think they should have some bonding time y’know. c’mon paps, breakfast. you need somethin’ before you go train."

The younger skeleton pondered this for a moment, but looked worried. "Does junior work with girl rocks? Is that a boy rock thing? Is this rock a boy? What if it’s neither?!” Papyrus looked overwhelmed. Shooting a desperate look at his brother, he whined softly holding his new family member to his chest.

Sans gave a massive full body shrug.

Papyrus stared at the rock for a hard a moment and then nodded, apparently coming to a decision. "Junior Mumbles it is! It’s perfect, Sans!"

“is it?” Sans leaned down toward the “adult” rock. “Le’see, does that name _boulder_ you mrs. Mumbles?”

The taller skeleton almost didn’t catch his brother’s words. But then he stopped his cooing and stared at Sans with a mock-pained expression.

Honest to the stars Papyrus had been having a good morning.

***

Somehow, Sans had convinced Papyrus to come along. Truly, it wasn’t that hard. The younger brother was dying for some of Grillby’s new smoothies. The fire monster had made them on a whim for his daughter, but due to overwhelming demand, began to sell them.

Also, Papyrus secretly had the ulterior motive of wanting to follow his brother around. He’d been acting kind of funny recently, and he wanted to watch him. As they ate, Sans seemed normal. He was just casually subtly chatting with Grillby as usual. It was all _too normal_! Papyrus may have been exceptionally optimistic and a little silly, but he wasn’t ignorant to the behavior of his brother—oh no! He watched him like a hawk. Recently, Sans had been staying out late, sleeping more—somehow—and just generally acting a bit different. He hadn’t been eating as much, which was a complete shocker, and got on Undernet less and less. Something was up with him. Maybe. Papyrus couldn’t have been sure, but he had a hunch.

It was only then that his thoughts were interrupted by his brother’s voice. Had he been talking to him before? “Hmm?” Papyrus said, giving his chunky brother his full attention.

“i said, after training today, how’s about we have a movie night? Jus’ me an’ you? catty cut me a great deal on some movies she found at the dump.”

The taller skeleton looked thoughtful. A movie night with his brother did sound pretty fun. Maybe Sans was just lonely, and wanted some company? “Of course, dear brother! That sounds like a lot of fun!”

Sans seemed to get smaller and fatter in his booth as his smile got bigger. This apparently made him pretty happy. “cool…cool…don’t be late, or else I’ma—“

Papyrus felt the immanent pun before it happened. “Sans.”

“—have to _reel_ in someone else.”

“Er...I don't get it..." the taller skeleton put his fingers to his chin, actually thinking very hard about this one.

Sans made a lame hand gesture. "y'know bro...a movie reel...a blooper reel?"

Papyrus's eye twitched. "That pun was not only outdated but also awful!” Papyrus was still on the verge of smiling though, and they both knew it.

***

Sans had walked with Papyrus all the way to Undyne’s house, waving him off and then just shoving his hands in his pockets. With a loud sniff from his non-existent nose, he turned around and wandered into the caves. Sometimes he would just walk around, poke the squeaky flowers, harass some Temmies with puns and jokes they didn't understand, really anything to ease his boredom and racing mind. Recently, his mind had been on the past. He and Grillby were taking a little break from the whole dating thing, and it was leaving him lonelier than ever.

Pleasant sounding drip-drops echoed in the darkness around him as he walked among the tall stalagmites and glowing flora. It was always so peaceful in waterfall. He shuffled along, ignoring how the fluff of his house shoes glistened and moistened from the dewy moss. His mind began to wander, pondering why they didn’t get rain in Snowdin. He’d always liked it. He knew the snow and rain were just byproducts of the magic barrier, unchanging and constant for the entirety of the barrier’s existence, but still a skeleton could hope.

A noise shook him from his thoughts, making him glance behind himself. It sounded like someone had been walking behind him. Raising an eyebrow ridge, he noticed there was of course no one there. It put him on edge, reminding him of all the times that damned flower would pop up behind him. Though luckily, he hadn’t seen that thing in quite some time. Perhaps it was a Temmie going on some sort of adventure. Yawning loudly, something he didn’t even need to do, he turned back forward and kept shuffling along.  
However, as he did, something seemed off about the wall before him. He could have sworn this particular wall had glowing mushrooms dotting it, but there seemed to be a break in the glow of the fungi. Tilting his head a bit, he squinted. Stiffening, he realized there was a break because someone was standing there. They were tall. It just looked like a tall, black shadow, back-lit by the glowing mushroom caps.

“hello?” he offered, unfamiliar with anyone that tall and skinny other than Grillby or his brother. The shape wavered, and writhed, in such an unnatural way it forced Sans to backup. A soft breath sounded, echoing off the cavern walls. It was the type of noise someone made when they had just finished laughing. The very sound itself made him nervous. “…hello…” he tried again, not moving toward the shadow.

“...৸ęl—ęllΦ...” a jumbled, clipped voice mumbled, echoing his voice back at him. It sounded so wrong, so out of place, that voice. What the hell was he hearing? It sounded like some sort of stripped audio, with the pitch and intonation going all over the place. It shocked him so much he just stood there like an idiot, blinking. Honestly he hadn’t actually expected it to say anything at all.

Suddenly, the shadow blinked and was right in front of him. In an instant, blackness obscured his vision. Everything was dark, everything was still, the noises of the cave disappeared.

It was like he was underwater, only able to hear the magic thrumming through his bones.

“...sęę...sǞПs...”

The small skeleton gasped, and then out of nowhere, the world returned. The drip-dropping of the water was back, and the bright stars and glowing fungi met his widened eye sockets. Again and again the voice repeated in his mind, something buried amongst the wrongness sounding familiar. He looked around to see no one until he glanced down, only to see an oblong imprint in the moss before him.

**Author's Note:**

> Who could that be? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


End file.
